NRI Build-out: Advancing Translational Brain Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this proposal is to build out 3 floors (total) in the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI) to accelerate research in understanding and treating disorders of the brain and mind. Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) investigators, through the support of six NIH institutes, HHMI, and several disease foundations, have been at the forefront of unraveling the molecular genetics of numerous neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders. The availability of excellent animal models for these disorders and the potential reversibility of several (demonstrated in mice) makes them ideally suited for an intense multidisciplinary effort to develop therapy. BCM and TCH conceived the NRI, a 350,000 sf silver-level LEED-certified research institute connecting BCM, TCH and MD Anderson, to be the first institute in the world devoted to childhood neurological disease. NRI will foster translational research in this class of diseases by 1) locating current BCM/TCH researchers working on these diseases under one roof, near TCH clinicians, 2) providing space to recruit needed expertise, and 3) establishing core services specifically conceived to support translational research in these diseases (e.g., neurophysiology, neuropathology, NMR/metabolomics, behavior, pharmacology/preclinical drug trials, mathematics/bioinformatics). TCH raised money for most of the first phase of this project, completed a 13-floor building shell, and will complete Floors 1 (admin, conference rooms), 3 (animal facility), 12, 13 and part of 11 by late 2010. This is insufficient, however, to allow NRI to begin functioning as it should. To accomplish that, we need to finish: Floor 11 (7025 sf) to recruit three new faculty; Floor 10 (22,705 sf) to relocate five BCM faculty performing neuropsychiatric disease-oriented research and recruit three new faculty; and Floor 2 (6125 sf): space for the NMR Metabolomic Core. As a result of this construction project, we estimate that 192 jobs directly assisting with construction will be maintained or created; recruiting new PIs over the next 3 years to the NIH-finished floors would create 100 jobs in the short-to-intermediate term. Based on previous data calculating the impact of the medical center on the Houston area economy, we estimate that every NRI employee will indirectly support three other jobs in the Houston region, and that every dollar invested in NRI generates $1.44 in local tax revenue. Ultimately, however, the discovery of treatments for these devastating diseases will restore quality of life and reduce their terrible economic burden on families and society.